Nurses Exempt

The nurses used to get overtime once they hit over 40 hours in a week. Now if a nurse picks up another shift, say an 8 hour shift and they already worked their 3 12 hour shifts, Instead of getting overtime for those 4 extra hours, they won't get it unless they have a total of 80 hrs worked for the pay period. You get it?

Psst... that's illegal; A violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The nurses used to get overtime once they hit over 40 hours in a week. Now if a nurse picks up another shift, say an 8 hour shift and they already worked their 3 12 hour shifts, Instead of getting overtime for those 4 extra hours, they won't get it unless they have a total of 80 hrs worked for the pay period. You get it?

No. How long is a pay period where you are?

Here, most pay periods are two weeks and we dont get paid extra unless we work over 80 hours in those two weeks.

A salary is where you get paid the same amount every pay period regardless of how many hours you work

RNs certainly qualify for exempt status according to FLSA. However, the issue of 'overtime' can be very complex. According to FLSA, exempt = no overtime pay & no minimum wage requirement (avg. hourly wage for hours worked). But, in any smart organization, they are going to realize that nurses will beat feet if they are not paid for hours worked. That's probably why they will pay extra (straight time usually) if you work an extra shift.

I think there are some distinct advantages to exempt status for staff nurses. The biggest one is being allowed to go home if census is down... without any reduction in pay. If they don't do this, there is no real advantage. The downside? having to come in and attend meetings, education, etc. without any additional pay.

I can say that this is not a magnet thing, I've worked for two hospitals that acquired Magnet status while I was employed there and no clinical staff nurse had a set up like you're mentioning. Sounds like personal choice of your hospital or its company

Hello all,

I'm a new nurse and I start my new job in a couple weeks. The hospital I'm working at just started this new professional model for nurses where they're basically salary paid and can't get overtime (well premium pay) until after 80 hours.

Is is this the new trend in nursing? Just curious as to how more experienced nurses like this or if this is even common.

Salary isn't a new model for staff nurses; it's been around at least 15 years or so. Mostly, it favors the employer and not the employee. It's not common, and wouldn't have flown at all in states with a strong nursing union. Say you stay late to chart -- an hour here, 90 minutes there . . . you don't get paid overtime unless you stay more than two hours after the end of your 12 hour shift. Not only do you not get overtime, you don't get paid at all. If you stay an hour late every single day, that's 20 hours every six weeks with no pay. You don't get paid overtime unless you work more than 80 hours in a two week pay period -- that means an extra four hour shift or longer. But wait -- if you took sick time, a vacation day or a holiday during that pay period, your four hours are straight pay. Furthermore, if you get called in for a staff meeting, that's straight time as well.

That policy really sticks it to folks who work a straight 3-12s per week. They'd have to work an extra shift longer than 8 hours to get overtime pay -- for the time over 8 hours only. So if you get called in to work extra, you do it for straight time. Differentials are rolled into the salary -- they assume you work half days/half nights, every other weekend and 3.5 of the seven annual holidays. That's all added to your pay. So if you work extra night shifts, no extra differential. If you pick up Janet's Christmas so she can spend it with the son home from the Army, you're not getting any extra holiday pay. And if you work extra weekends -- no extra differential.

On the other hand, if the census is low and you take a day off -- you either have to switch into another shift or use your vacation time. No such thing as taking a day off without paying. The whole system is weighted to favor the employer, and if I had it to do all over again, I wouldn't have taken the damned job. There WAS a nursing shortage then.

This sounds like management does not want to pay the nurses overtime like they deserve.

Salary isn't a new model for staff nurses; it's been around at least 15 years or so. Mostly, it favors the employer and not the employee. It's not common, and wouldn't have flown at all in states with a strong nursing union. Say you stay late to chart -- an hour here, 90 minutes there . . . you don't get paid overtime unless you stay more than two hours after the end of your 12 hour shift. Not only do you not get overtime, you don't get paid at all. If you stay an hour late every single day, that's 20 hours every six weeks with no pay. You don't get paid overtime unless you work more than 80 hours in a two week pay period -- that means an extra four hour shift or longer. But wait -- if you took sick time, a vacation day or a holiday during that pay period, your four hours are straight pay. Furthermore, if you get called in for a staff meeting, that's straight time as well.

That policy really sticks it to folks who work a straight 3-12s per week. They'd have to work an extra shift longer than 8 hours to get overtime pay -- for the time over 8 hours only. So if you get called in to work extra, you do it for straight time. Differentials are rolled into the salary -- they assume you work half days/half nights, every other weekend and 3.5 of the seven annual holidays. That's all added to your pay. So if you work extra night shifts, no extra differential. If you pick up Janet's Christmas so she can spend it with the son home from the Army, you're not getting any extra holiday pay. And if you work extra weekends -- no extra differential.

On the other hand, if the census is low and you take a day off -- you either have to switch into another shift or use your vacation time. No such thing as taking a day off without paying. The whole system is weighted to favor the employer, and if I had it to do all over again, I wouldn't have taken the damned job. There WAS a nursing shortage then.

This is pretty much how our compensation worked when I worked in the hospital. If your position was 0.9 FTE, you were paid for 72 hrs every other week regardless of how many hours you actually worked. The hospital could schedule you for 96 hrs in a pay period and you'd get paid for 72. They'd then schedule you for fewer hours in subsequent pay periods but this system clearly benefits the employer- the non-exempt nurse would get 16 hrs of OT that the exempt nurse does not in this situation. Differentials were paid based on your "percentage of off shifts" and were adjusted quarterly. But the only thing they considered were night shifts... if you worked extra evenings or weekends, they didn't factor that in as an off shift and would cut your differential if your night % dropped below 50%.

If you stay late to chart or because your patient codes at change of shift, you are doing so on your own time. They didn't pay for anything beyond your shift and, unlike true salaried employees, you couldn't just come in 2 hours late the next day to make up for it.

There were some pros to it- like you could work 48 hrs for 3 weeks in a row and have a week off with pay without having to use any vacation time, but you're still losing out on 24 hrs of OT in that situation.

Well, this sounds like it sucks! But, I'm a new grad with limited options. I passed Nclex, had an interview and got hired all within a week and a half (mainly bc I was already working in the hospital, but on a different floor). So I guess I don't really have any other choice. :***: Thank you all for the feedback!

There is NO requirement to pay OT for meetings, inservices, or classes as they are considered "Non-productive time" in other words you are not at the patient bedside where a majority of your work is usually done.

Actually, there is. Whether time worked is "productive" or not has no bearing on whether you are paid overtime.

The following is from the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) Overtime -- The Online Wages, Hours and Overtime Pay Resource link that you provided:

With only a few exceptions, all time an employee is required to be at the premises of the employer is work time. All regular shift time is work time. This includes "breaks" (if there are breaks), and "nonproductive" time (for example, time spent by a receptionist reading a novel while waiting for the phone to ring).

If you are a full time nurse, and one week you receive 4 hours over 40, and the next week you receive your 40 hour week, then you would have over 80 hours for the 2 weeks, and be paid for 84 hours.

You may find, however, that you are called off or otherwise re-assigned so that you do not go over 80 hours. Including the committee/project/presentation work that you will be voluntold you need to participate in to help with the journey to magnetism.

It is a good way to reschedule nurses as needed without incurring overtime costs in doing so.